a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Jerry Sloan Odds and Ends

That’s Jerry on the left, obviously. The guy on the right in the orange shirt is Michael Clarke Duncan. The white kid is Arne Duncan, who is the U.S. Secretary of Education. Per Arne Duncan’s wikipedia page, he was childhood friends with Michael Clarke Duncan and R. Kelly, co-captain of the basketball team at Harvard, and played pro ball in Australia.

(The photo is from a Chicago Tribune article on Arne’s mother, Sue Duncan, who founded and runs an educational center for underprivileged kids.)

Two. By now, you’ve probably seen Hoopism‘s awesome NBA team word clouds based on who played the most minutes for each team. While checking out the Jazz’s word cloud, did you also click on Chicago’s?

There’s a reason Jerry is known as the “Original Bull.” No one has played more minutes for the Bulls except Jordan and Pippen.

Three. We all know how close Jerry and Phil are and how their relationship goes back almost 40 years. After last night’s game, one question remains: Do they share clothes?

Tas went with the East, because the East has guys that have played in the last decade and he believes in Jay Triano’s ability to run the point and hit shots.

Skeets pointed out that Triano, Mike D’Antoni, Byron Scott, Doc Rivers, and Avery Johnson all play the same position, and took the West because he’s got Lionel Hollins, Phil Jackass, and Kurt Rambis to play inside (Tas: “Phil Jackson won’t make it up the court”), and Jerry Sloan: “I don’t care how old he is, he would punk half these guys. He would punk them.” (watch the video for the rest)

Five. Brian T. Smith did a fantastic, must-read piece on the relationship between Jerry, Deron, and Raja a few days ago. Many people (outsiders?) are under the impression that Jerry is stubborn, won’t change, and won’t listen to anyone else, but Ronnie P says that that is not the case:

There’s a lot of coaches that are stuck in their systems. That probably think they know everything and don’t want to make a few changes here and there with the team to win a few games. I don’t think coach Sloan is like that. I think he’s a very humble coach who’s open to learning new things and becoming a good coach. (sltrib)

Phil Johnson, who probably knows Jerry better than anyone, added that Jerry has changed in one way:

What has changed in him the most since I started working with him is his ability to accept the fact that he might make a mistake. …He wanted to be so perfect, when all of us make mistakes–you can’t be perfect. He worried about that a lot. (sltrib)

About a week ago, David Locke did an interview (mp3) with Phil in which they also talked about his relationship with Jerry. I think it’s well-known that Phil has interviewed for head coaching positions since being with the Jazz, but he’s withdrawn his name from consideration before the talks really got anywhere. Locke asked Phil if he has any aspirations to strike out on his own, i.e. whether he’s still interested in [head] coaching, and Phil responded:

I never went after a job, I’ve had some people, feelers, and I’ve interviewed for jobs at their asking our ownership for permission to talk to me. I’ve never went after a job. That being said, it has to be such a good situation for me to leave; there’s not many places I would be willing to go. I’ve just been really happy here, I enjoy the city, it’s the area I grew up in, and I like our team, I like our organization, and I particularly like working for Jerry.

Great look at Jerry Sloan. I love your writing at SLC Dunk and here. Being out of state I don’t follow the Jazz in the newspapers as much as on the blogs, and this is one that I check every day and get a little huge grin when there’s something new. Keep it up!